Your View: Fairhaven Wind would rather mitigate than litigate

Sunday

Jun 9, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 9, 2013 at 7:02 AM

A lot of ink has been spilled over the past year regarding Fairhaven's wind turbines. Most stories and letters are prompted by the handful of residents who have objected to the turbines from the time they were first proposed and overwhelmingly supported by the town in a special Town Meeting. Much commentary has come from people who are not even Fairhaven residents. Presumed facts and numbers have been thrown around and many accusations have been made about different parties. Unfortunately, name-calling and intimidation have meant that the majority of the community who continue to support the project have been cowed into silence.

GORDON L. DEANE

A lot of ink has been spilled over the past year regarding Fairhaven's wind turbines. Most stories and letters are prompted by the handful of residents who have objected to the turbines from the time they were first proposed and overwhelmingly supported by the town in a special Town Meeting. Much commentary has come from people who are not even Fairhaven residents. Presumed facts and numbers have been thrown around and many accusations have been made about different parties. Unfortunately, name-calling and intimidation have meant that the majority of the community who continue to support the project have been cowed into silence.

Fairhaven Wind believes some of the positive facts should be put on the table, as well. Over the first year of operation, more than 5.8 million kilowatt hours were produced by the two turbines and sold to the town. This power represents around 90 percent of the town's expected municipal consumption for the year. While total production was less than projected for an average year, it was right on target based on the actual wind regime over the same time period. Even with this lower production, the town managed to reap almost $160,000 of benefits, resulting in an important contribution to the town's bottom line. From an environmental standpoint, the emission-free power reduced CO2 emissions by more than 8,586,000 pounds, or the equivalent of removing almost 700 cars from our roads. The town should be proud of what it has accomplished.

Fairhaven Wind does not ignore the fact that there are complaints and we sympathize with those who are truly annoyed. We have tracked each of the complaints so that we can understand what conditions, wind speeds and wind directions are of primary concern. However, complaints have also included blame for pre-existing conditions (e.g., two years of headaches even though the turbines have operated for only one) and property values (although homes in the area have sold quickly at near the asking price). More than half of the complaints sent to the Board of Health and forwarded to us are from only four households, with 75 percent from just 10 households.

The so-called "exceedances" reported two weeks ago by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in its interim report have been embraced by the opponents as evidence the turbines are not performing as promised. In fact, the opposite is true. So far, MassDEP's results show the turbines are operating consistently with the acoustic study funded by the state for the town and a separate one done by Fairhaven Wind. Those studies — commonly accepted in industry and comparing similar metrics — said the turbines would not exceed a 10 dBA increase in noise. And that's exactly what MassDEP's data show.

What is different is that MassDEP is using a scientifically flawed methodology to evaluate compliance. It's as if one compares low tide today with high tide after global warming — not the same measure, so one cannot assess the cause. Essentially, the town and Fairhaven Wind have been the subject of a bait and switch by the state. The standard being applied by the state to wind is not consistent with its own studies or with how the state permits other power plants. A coal-fired power plant with all of its emissions and noise sources would not have this burden if sited in Fairhaven.

Even with this flawed approach, and trying to pick nights when MassDEP thought the sound would be the worst, there were only four nights since August (and none in the summer months) when MassDEP could come up with a so-called "exceedance." Even with this flawed approach, no "exceedances" occurred in neighborhoods that contributed more than one-third of the complaints to the Board of Health. In fact, using comparable metrics, MassDEP's data often had those neighborhoods quieter with the turbines on than when they were off.

Fairhaven Wind could litigate MassDEP's findings and there are many in the wind industry who wish we would. Our contract with the town does not allow the town to simply change the rules. The Board of Health cannot impose new regulations without hearings, and MassDEP and the Department of Public Health have already weighed in that there are no direct adverse health effects from wind noise at the levels reported by MassDEP. However, rather than litigate, we've told the town and MassDEP that we prefer to find a way to mitigate these few instances of concern.

Now is the time to calm the rhetoric and look at things realistically. No one solution will make all parties happy. Fairhaven Wind is willing to come to the table. MassDEP has expressed its willingness to work with us. We hope the town will do likewise.